Sometimes here in the “Editor’s Focus” column, I share interesting news that just didn’t seem to fit thematically elsewhere in the magazine—or that we literally didn’t have room for in the news sections. Sometimes, I share my opinions on various pharma and biotech issues which—whether you agree with them or not—I hope get you thinking and talking about what matters both in the science and the business of life-sciences R&D and therapeutic/diagnostic development. And other times, not as often but still from time to time, I am a tour guide.

And, as I instruct you to form a couple orderly lines and caution you that no flash photography is allowed...yes, you guessed it: tour guide this time.

Obviously, the flagship of our fleet—whoops, I just suddenly went from tour guide metaphor to nautical metaphor; sorry for any drastic movements that may have caused you injury—anyway, our flagship is the physical magazine. Which, as it happens, you might be holding in your hands right now (or maybe not; this column appears online as well). Most of my life outside of family and watching superhero, sci-fi and thriller movies is consumed with putting together the issue every month.

And whether we give you 40 pages of it, or 48 pages or that rare 56-pager, we pack it pretty full of news and commentary relevant to your own work and lives. But still, there is more to it all than this magazine, and that would be our websites. Yes, this might surprise some of you but not all—we have two websites.

On the main DDNews site at www.ddn-news.com you can find online-only news but also the content of each monthly issue, which we offer both in the form of a PDF of the entire issue and also in the form of highlights from the magazine, with the features and/or stories in question viewable on their own web pages. And that brings me to another thing I wanted to address about our treasure trove (nautical/pirate metaphor) as I guide you through the sites we have to offer (tour guide again): our Editconnect numbers.

For some of you, this is old news but many of you have probably wondered what those numbers are at the end of most news articles and special features in the magazine. Well, wonder no more. These are the hidden treasures in our trove, under the secret panel that looks like the bottom of the treasure chest. Not that they are more valuable, mind you, but they are special.

In some cases, these are more niche or technical pieces that don’t appeal to the broader part of our magazine audience but are still relevant to many of you. Other times it's online-only bonus material like our mostly-monthly Q&As with various CEOs, researchers and other movers and shakers in life sciences and pharma/biotech. You can find out about all those hidden treasures for this month on page 12, by the way. (If you’re reading this online you can always pull up the PDF of the issue [click here] and take a look at that summary on page 12.)

And all you need to do is go to our website (again, www.ddn-news.com) and enter that Editconnect number in the little search field on the top left of our homepage. Once you hit the “click here” button you’ll get a link to the piece.

And when it comes to news articles in the magazine, sometimes it pays to read the online version, as there are almost always some articles we have to trim for space in the physical magazine—but the full versions always appear online, even if we edit them for print.

Finally, as I walk you through the treasures of DDNews, there’s that second website I mentioned: Cancer Research News. You can find it at www.ddn-cancer.com. Not surprisingly, it focuses on oncology R&D and other cancer-related news of note. Some stories that appear on our main website also appear there, but there is also plenty of original content you can only find on that CRN website.

Thanks for visiting, as always, whether online or in actual paper pages. We look forward to filling your mental coffers with news treasures for years to come.